What is funny is it turns out Kaplan identified 1807 and he probably had a Solleone set before I did--but probably not time to read all the various printed leaflets in Italian to put together a timeline.

As Debra said, only us deck nerds would care!

One Potato's fabulous find is still whispered about with great awe and reverence. Perhaps that is why my early yellow Solleone and LS reprints feel so much more authentic as we are lucky to have seen the online scans here.

Thanks again

Mari aka Deck Nerd Cerulean

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cerulean

These notes below are probably faulty, taken from bits and pieces of the Il Solleone newsprint foldouts and beginning to be supplemented by the Lo Scarabeo book on the Ancient Tarots of Lombardy or (Neoclassical 1810) with Giordano Berti/Marisa Chiesa...I'll add more, correct and revise based on comments. Di Gumppenberg biographical notes

From the Trade Sites of Milan from Il Solleone
Di Gumppenberg highlights - I notice Il Solleone prints the name as follows:

Ferdinando Gumppenberg

Born Jan 3, 1788 from Franco and Caterina Sala. It says born to Monaco of Baveria, Monoco being a city-state, Baveria being the country in 1788?

1805-1809--Apprenticed in the art of cards press (printers) in the important Fabbicante di Monaco

1809--Enlightenment, the Regia Fabbrica (regional maker?) of the cards transfers to Milan---I believe this is within Napoleon's reign, near the end.

Cerulean Mari's note: I also believe that one of the historical events that might have influenced the making of the Neoclassical of 1811 might have been the birth of Napoleon's son in March of 1811, known as the "King of Rome" and crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy.* (Di Gumppenberg did issue a later deck in celebration of Emporer Ferdinand)

Cerulean Mari's note: Possibly this means that the card-making is no longer controlled regionally or restricted or the designation from Napoleon's 'restriction' was lifted and now competition from other Milanese cardmakers

(R. Somerville had an old link to 22 card mignon Tarocco from Lo Scarabeo, but it's no longer available).

1855- Dies after 67 years.

*A quick translation. Any input appreciated, I'll correct later. I'm still gathering references, which includes the Lo Scarabeo book, and a catalog from the defunct publishing house of Solleone, edited by Vito Arienti.

Hope this helps. Cards have fanciful fonts and creamy backdrops as the Neoclassical/Lombardy yellow light edition.

Cerulean

Quote:

Originally Posted by OnePotato

Here is what I have noticed about the signature on the Ace of Cups:

My copy has "Gumppenberg / Fabricatore in Milano" as the signature.
I believe the Lo Scarabeo reprint also has this same sig.

The Il Meneghello reprint, and the Kaplan version (Illustrated in both the Encyclopedia Vol II and the Christie's 6-21-06 catalog) both have "Fabbricatore / Gumppenberg" as the signature.

In looking at them, I believe mine is the older version, because both the italic slant and the character of the script better match the rest of the deck. This suggests everything was done at the same time. The Il Meneghello/Kaplan script is at a slightly different angle, and of a slightly different character that does not match the other text in the deck. It is also placed slightly crooked, and the decenders of the "p's" actually run into the border art. All of this suggests that it was added later, by a different hand.

In all versions, I can see several small pits in the plate that have left small dots in the background, so it is almost certainly the same master plate that is used for both editions. (Only the signature area differs.)

It is possible to fill or rub out an area on an engraved plate, and then re-engrave it anew. So it appears that he wanted to remove the "Milano" from the deck at a later date. I'm sure there's some logical, historical reason for this, but I haven't found any explanation yet.

I also noticed that Kaplan's copy, with the altered signature, has blue backs, instead of red.

So far I haven't found any discussion or mention of multiple editions of this deck. The tax stamp is the same, so they all would appear to date from the same general time, but there were obviously multiple printings over the active time period.

One of these days I'll have to get the reprints in order to compare the variations in color application. Generally, they appear pretty similar, but even by looking at just a few online scans, I can see that there are probably a lot of differences in the details. I'm curious to see if stencils were used, or if it is all done by hand.

Thanks, KhonsuMes!
It's interesting to see just how beautiful the original printing of this deck really is.
It has a razor sharpness and overall color quality that gets lost in all of the repros I've seen.
Given that publishers continued to make stencil colored woodblock decks for another 70 years or so, somewhere in here is a lesson for anyone who's claimed, "If they had the technology, they would have used it to make neater coloring that looks like..."

Well then, would you consider having your deck reproduced more faithfully.
There are people doing beautiful repros now, with more modern digital techniques. Your deck looks to be a great candidate for them.
And I'm sure I would not be the only person interested in buying it!! There are a lot of Soprafino fans out here..

Quote:

Originally Posted by OnePotato

Thanks, KhonsuMes!
It's interesting to see just how beautiful the original printing of this deck really is.
It has a razor sharpness and overall color quality that gets lost in all of the repros I've seen.
Given that publishers continued to make stencil colored woodblock decks for another 70 years or so, somewhere in here is a lesson for anyone who's claimed, "If they had the technology, they would have used it to make neater coloring that looks like..."

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